THE EFFECT OF THE EXPLICIT STRATEGY TRAINING ON LEARNER AUTONOMY

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the effect of the explicit strategy training on the students’ autonomy in foreign language learning and to seek for their attitudes towards such training. The research lasted for fourteen weeks at the 2018-2019 academic year. Data were collected through the Course Evaluation Questionnaire, the Student Autonomous Learning Capacity Questionnaire, the learner diary, the researcher's diary and semi-structured interviews. The SALCQ was administered twice first at the beginning and secondly at the end of the training so as to identify any increases in the learners’ capacity of autonomy. The results revealed that the strategy training helped learners enhance their capacity of autonomy in some factors. The study disclosed that the students held positive attitudes towards the training as it provided opportunities for the students to employ LLSs more effectively, deal with learning related problems, enhance self-directed out of class activities, to develop language learning skills and to monitor their learning process in an effective way by raising their awareness of strategy use and self-confidence. Furthermore, the strategy training provided opportunities for the students to reflect on their learning methods, classroom activities along with their classroom behaviour and how learning could be made easier.